Ake Jonsson 1973 Photo Gallery

Ake Jonsson 1973

Ake Jonsson's original works Yamaico

The photo gallery below was donated to MXworksbike.com by Ake Jonsson. These are from Ake's own personal archive covering his first year (1973) at Yamaha. 1973 was a very historical year. It was the first year of "Long Travel" suspension and it was the year Yamaha debuted the monoshock. Ake had just come off an unbelievable Trans-AMA series where he won 9 out of 11 races against the worlds best on the works Maico (see here). For 1973 Yamaha made Ake an offer that he just couldn't refuse, and for 1973 he was a factory rider on the works Yamaha team. Yamaha had only been involved in GP motocross since 1972 and the development of their open class bike was in the very early stages. The Yamaha was a very light and responsive bike with an engine that made a much different power-band than the well refined Maico. Ake was very much involved with developing the open class works bike and as you can see by the photo above, Ake's works Yamaha more than resembled a Maico. This was all in an attempt to find the magic that gave him the incredible success he had on the Maico the year before. Most of these photos have never been seen before, they are copyrighted so please respect. Also, special thanks to Ake's son, Tomas for making this possible with the many hours of scanning. Enjoy Ake's photo gallery.